- Graded to a 6 at the waist and hips
- Lowered BP 1 inch
- Lengthened torso 1 inch
- Made a forward shoulder adjustment
- Scooped out curve on princess seam above and below bust point
- Took darts out of neckline to reduce gaping, 1/4" on each side, tapering to nothing toward bust
- Lowered armpit 1/2" and lengthened sleeve curve correspondingly
- Shortened skirt. A lot. A total of maybe 4–5 inches
- Changed closure from a back zipper to a button front (Cut back on fold instead of front. Cut front along center front and added seam allowance. Added a placket.)
- Finally, I made bias binding and used it on the neckline
Still this is super comfortable and I'm pretty pleased. I'm not sure I like the box pleats. The next one I make (I bought the fabric at the same time I bought the fabric for this version) might get regular pleats like on the McCalls shirtdress I made that this Upton is supposed to be an improvement on. It is, with the possible exception of the pleats.
However, I had to lower the feed dogs to do it—that's how it's done on my Pfaff—but I forgot that the stupid things get stuck when put down. So, I found a single YouTube where a guy explained how to fix it on a machine similar to mine (the predecessor, I suppose), and I managed to fix mine using his information even though my machine is not constructed the same. They updated the guts but still made a feed dog mechanism that sucks.
Finally, my buttonhole function is going haywire. I sewed about 5 buttonholes, and it started screwing up, jamming and bunching thread. Then I noticed only 1 of the buttonholes I'd sewn was correct. I had to take them all out and research alternatives. I found a good YouTube that showed a system that worked for me.
- Mark the buttonhole placement (a vertical line through the middle and a top and bottom line that can be seen when the presser foot is down)
- The basic idea is to sew a wide zigzag at the top of the hole (5 stitches), a narrow zigzag along the right and left sides, and another wide zigzag at the bottom (another 5 stitches).
- The settings I used for WIDE were: length, 0.8, width 6.0 and NARROW: length 0.8, width 2.5. Worked like a charm and without the anxiety of that stupid automatic buttonhole.